Monthly Archives: October 2008

In 2 more sleeps I will be on my way to New York City, to the waiting and generous spare bed of my knitting pal Rebecca, then on Saturday it will be off to the New York Sheep and Wool festival, aka Rhinebeck. Wait, there’s something missing in that description, what was it…oh yeah: WOO HOO.

I am so excited. I’ve been looking forward to this like whoa. It’s smack-dab in the middle of the term when both students and profs alike are getting a bit weary, and so far I haven’t had a bad trip to New York yet (knock on wood). For about a month I’ve been saying “I wish Rhinebeck was right now”, and soon it will be, yee-haw! I’ve got two or three vendors in mind that I want to get to first, and after that will be very happy to browse at leisure, and I’m hoping to run into a few of you fellow knit-bloggers out there too. Also, word on the street is that it’s going to be sweater-weather this weekend, which means a wonderful parade of knitwear will be waiting to be ogled.

Thankfully, my own Rhinebeck sweater has been completed and ready and waiting for a week now, and lo and behold, it is lovely. My Cabled Swing Cardi fits beautifully and I think it looks darned smashing. Sadly it’s a bit grey out right now and this is probably not the best light for photography…and it would be even better to be wearing it IN the picture, but a photo session just hasn’t been in the cards the past few days. I’ll try to make up for that on the weekend.

Pattern: Cabled Swing Cardi by Norah Gaughan, in The Knitter’s Book of Yarn by Clara Parkes.Yarn: Berrocco Ultra Alpaca, colour “Lobster Mix”, 6.5 skeins. (This is much less than the 9 skeins the pattern calls for in the size I made. All evidence on Ravelry points to extremely generous yarn estimates for this pattern). I bought this yarn on sale at WEBS in the spring, and still have 3 skeins left. I’m sure I”ll think of something for the rest of it. It’s an extremely heathery brown, with shades of purple and red all mixed in, I’m pretty pleased with it considering I hardly ever wear brown.
Needles: 4.0mm for ribbing and 4.5mm for the rest.

Mods: The only changes I made were to add a couple of stitches on either side of the back to give it just an idge more ease on my shoulders – I have a fairly slim waist but slightly wider shoulders than most standard sizing accounts for given the size of the rest of me, so that’s a pretty common modification for me. I also opted for i-cord ties on both the inside and the outside front edges, instead of the button on the outside which the pattern instructs. I did this to allow more flexible ease to let me tighten or loosen the fit at the bust according to preference.

All in all, I call this pattern a win. I completed it in just over a month and probably could have had it done quicker if I’d worked on it more dedicatedly in the beginning. The cables are surprisingly intuitive on the front and once you’re finished those, the only other cabling is a small amount on the sleeves. I really like the double seed stitch texture at the top of the bodice.

I have, naturally, already cast on for another sweater. We’ll see if it comes with me this weekend to keep me company in airports.

If I don’t get back to the blog before the weekend – have a good one, whether you’ll be fondling yarn at sheep & wool festivals or no! Catch you on the other side.

It’s been a few months since I’ve done a 12 of 12! This time I marked it in big letters on my calendar so I wouldn’t forget. And this time the 12th of October happened to fall on our Thanksgiving weekend – it is today, the Monday, that is actually Thanksgiving, but our family has tended to have the big dinner on the Sunday night. Makes Monday easier to schedule in some sitting around. Anyhow, here are the 12 photos, a day in the life:

9:00am
So, I got up, ate my cereal, checked my internets, and thought while i was waiting between food and getting out for my run, I might as well wind up those 2 skeins of Lorna’s Laces sock yarn that are waiting to go on the needles next. I then entered into a half-hour struggle with the 1st skein, after discovering that the end I had attached to the ball-winder was completely and irrevocably twisted around the rest of the skein in multiple annoying ways. The 2nd skein, of course, was fine and took 3 minutes to wind.

9:30am
My second Forest Canopy shawl is still blocking, but will soon be ready to un-pin.
With that, I am out for a long Sunday run!

1:00pm
My feet would like to report that they ran 15K in the morning and have filed a request for a home foot spa. They took me over to P’s to borrow a springform pan.

1:05pm
On the way I stopped to admire the fall colours which have started to come in, and for some trees, have also started to fall quite literally.

1:20pm
While at P’s I said hello to the kitties also. They continue to be terribly cute.

2:00pm
Baking now, with Giada, this time an appetizer roasted red pepper cheesecake. Only hitch was needing to rig up a smaller portion of the springform pan to bake it in, which worked out thanks to a lot of tinfoil and some rice and pie weights.

5:00pm
After some baking, kitchen work, and sitting and knitting, people start to arrive. Martha lets me use her as practice for taking pictures of myself. (Not seen here: the first 7 attempts).

5:30pm
Setting the dinner table.

7:30pm (Or sometime around there-ish)
Sitting down at the table and enjoying the feast. Or at least, the second stage of the feast. The first stage was delicious and cheesy and was very nice on crackers.

10:29pm
Man was I ready to fall into bed – good food, good chatter, and also that big long run in the morning all made for a very sleepy Glenna. I managed the first two chapters of Jasper Fforde (I can read the 1st book now that i’ve finished Jane Eyre!), and then was out like a light until the morning.

Happy Thanksgiving if you’re in Canada, and happy Monday if you’re not! May your knitting be close by.

With the aid of the Random Number Generator, we have contest winners from Tuesday’s post!

The winners are Olivia (commenter #62), Robyn (commenter #49), and Aven (commenter #6). All three have been sent an email message informing them of their prize win.

Thank you to everyone who commented in the prize draw, it has been wonderful to read about your dream knitting projects. There is much inspiration to be found in those comments. I say to you, yea verily, go forth and knit the garment of your dreams! (Well, unless it involves cashmere. In that case make sure to save up first, THEN go forth and knit the garment of your dreams) ;)

I wish you all a pleasant knitting weekend, and a happy Thanksgiving weekend to all in Canada.

I love birthdays and parties and celebrations in general, and yet I have somehow managed to always miss my blog anniversary – I’ve let two go by now without recognition, so it’s time for another approach. This post marks my 300th. 300 posts of me rambling about knitting, my universe, and everything. And somehow my ramblings have been diverting enough for other people to read them, so in celebration of #300 I have 3 wee yarn giveaways for you. I’ve tossed my stash and pulled a few things to part with, but which are good enough for you, the fine knitters of the blogosphere.

One of these fine prizes could be yours! All you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling me which one of these yarns you have your eye on, and answer a question: If time, money, and skill did not limit you, what would be your ultimate dream knit? The pattern or knitted concept that you have been secretly (or perhaps not so secretly) been yearning to make, but haven’t gotten to it yet. Let’s see your inspiration! I’ll accept comments until noon on Friday of this week. Then I will draw names randomly and award the yarns to their happy new homes.

In other news, the Cabled Swing Cardi is finished and blocking/drying, and the shawl inches ever closer to being finished. There are only 10 days until Rhinebeck and I can’t wait!

So two and a half weeks ago I was at the Kitchener-Waterloo Knitter’s Fair and returned with a small haul of new yarn. I followed our friend Dee’s lead and cast on for something right away. She, of course, finished her something within, oh, a week or so, and meanwhile I’m still plodding. It’s not the most horrible plodding, per se, I just sort of thought I’d be done by now. It’s my second Forest Canopy Shawl:

The yarn is really quite lovely on the hands, and is just made for shawls – it’s fingering-weight merino hand dyed by Michelle at The Sweet Sheep, in ‘Super Skeins’ (this colour is ‘Depth’) that are long enough that you can get a shawl out of a single one, no stopping to switch to a second or third skein, no weaving in ends in the middle of your lace pattern. Highly brilliant. In fact I might even get another one in a different colour, next time I’m at a local festival.

The only downside of course, is that I’ve knitted at least 15 pattern repeats by now and I still have 100g of wool left and I’m starting to feel like I’ll be knitting this shawl forever. I mean, it’s a fingering weight shawl, shouldn’t this take, like, 2 seconds? It’s 4.5mm needles, not laceweight on 3.25mm or something…

Then Martha pointed out that this is yardage equivalent to two pairs of socks, and I do very rarely finish two pairs of socks that instantaneously. So when you put it that way, I’m doing just fine for time. I can be patient. This has nothing to do with wanting to breeze on through and start another project right away to ease my stash guilt before Rhinebeck. Nope. Nosiree, nothing of that sort. Um.

But in good news, I did finish the first sleeve of the Swing Cardi last night, so I”m on the home stretch with only the second sleeve, neckline, and finishing to go. Just over two weeks to go…

In other news, my next post, according to my blog statistics, will be my 300th. Since I have managed to let two Blog Anniversaries sail right by me (it is in July), I am going to make the 300th post count. I think there shall be some giveaways, it’s about time I did a blog contest! So, stay tuned. And I hope your Thursday is a knit-worth one.